A selection of writings from Ryder holidays over the last few years- hopefully a bit more than a what-we-did diary, these include sundry musings prompted by places visited. Several document excursions into France, where the linguistically-challenged Peter flounders in the wake of the cultured and fluent Elaine; of course old buildings figure fairly prominently; so do caves, and occasionally fossils. More exotically there are trips to Western Canada, where they meet real mountains and grizzly bears, and Iceland where Elaine gets into hot water, and Peter enthuses on landscapes of geological youth, reflecting that he is twice as old as the mountain he climbed on his birthday!